The head of African football Ahmad Ahmad has been suspended by FIFA for five years for corruption, the global governing body announced on Monday, AFP reports. 

Ahmad, from Madagascar, has been president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) since March 2017 and was standing for re-election in 2021 when FIFA banned him for "governance issues".

In their statement, FIFA said Ahmad had "breached his duty of loyalty, offered gifts and other benefits, mismanaged funds and abused his position as the CAF President".

Ahmad has also been fined 200,000 Swiss francs ($220,000) by FIFA for the misdeeds, which related to "the organisation and financing of an Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca" and his involvement in CAF’s dealings with a sports equipment company.

The 60-year-old, who last week stood down from his post for 20 days after testing positive for coronavirus, can appeal the ban "from all football-related activity" at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

In April 2019 he was accused of a series of offences by former CAF official Amr Fahmy, who informed FIFA in a letter that Ahmad had paid bribes to directors, made personal use of CAF funds and sexually harassed a number of employees.

Two months later he was arrested in Paris while at the FIFA Congress ahead of that year's women's World Cup as part of a probe into corruption, but was released a day later without charge.

Ahmad's bid to remain head of CAF was being challenged by Augustin Senghor, the president of the Senegalese Football Federation.

News.Az